More than 530 migrants seeking to reach Europe have been rescued off Spain and Italy, officials said Saturday.
A total of 418 migrants were rescued in three operations off Spain, the country's national rescue service said. In the largest of the operations, 262 people on 15 vessels were rescued in the Strait of Gibraltar, Salvamento Maritimo said on Twitter.
Twenty-seven others were found in the Mediterranean between Spain and Morocco and 129 more off the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, added Maritimo.
The world's leading container shipping company Danish Maersk Line also said on Saturday that one of its vessels rescued 113 migrants off the coast of southern Italy.
The container ship called Alexander Maersk changed its course after picking up a distress signal on early Friday, Mikkel Elbek Linnet, spokesman at Maersk Line, told AFP.
The vessel is currently situated off the coast of the Sicilian town of Pozzallo and awaiting instructions from the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC Rome).
The Maersk container's move to rescue the migrants is part of "an ancient code of conduct," according to Linnet.
"It's not the first time...they have picked up migrants two or three times before in recent years," he told AFP.
Italy's new populist government has threatened to seize several other ships carrying migrants, sparking a row with the EU.
